Shorai LFX Lithium-Iron Battery | MC TESTED

While developing my long-term Honda CBR250R for racing, I hoped to make it as light as possible. A lightweight lithium-iron battery from Shorai was part of the program that brought the CBR under 300 pounds, ready to race.

The Honda’s stock lead-acid battery (right) weighs 5.4 lbs., while Shorai’s LFX14A2 (left) tips in at just 1.5 lbs., offering an easy 3.9-lb. savings. Most Shorai batteries are smaller than the stock units they replace, and so come with several sheets of adhesive-backed foam for shimming purposes. The CBR battery was light enough that I was able to secure it with patches of hook and loop faster, preserving the foam for other uses around the shop.

Shorai’s batteries use prismatic (flat) lithium-iron-phosphate cells wrapped in a “military spec carbon composite case” and come with a two-year warranty. Lithium-iron batteries have extremely low self-discharge rates, but if voltage sags Shorai says you can top its batteries up with a standard battery charger as long as it does not have a disulfation mode, which could damage the cells’ chemistry. The CBR racebike has sat for as long as two months between races, but the battery has never needed attention. In fact, the Shorai cranks the CBR over noticeably quicker, something the company claims will happen because of lower internal resistance that allows the battery to deliver more current to the starter.

The Shorai’s only shortcomings are expense and flimsy steel terminals. As a rule lithium-iron batteries don’t work well in extreme cold or on vehicles with a parasitic draw (like an alarm system), but for our application, the Shorai was an easy way to save weight.